Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I warmly congratulate the Minister of State on her elevation. I wish her absolutely nothing but good luck and success In her role. I am sure she will be an excellent Minister of State and very diligent about her duties. I wish her well on that.

I am very glad to have an opportunity to contribute to the debate. On behalf of the credit unions in County Kerry, and on behalf of the people who have availed of their excellent services, I want to thank them. The credit unions that I deal with mostly are in County Kerry. Going back over the years, and before I ever came here to this House, I was on the local authority and I saw at first-hand how important it was for constituents to be able to avail of the services of their own local credit union where there was a real personal relationship, be it for house improvements, farm improvements, for the purchase of machinery, and loans for all different purposes. I thank the credit unions for that.

When we look at what happened during the banking crisis, the credit union was one of the two institutions that really came to the fore and were sound and solid and we could always rely on. These were our credit unions and our post offices.

I link those institutions together and thank them for what they have done.

If fully supported by the Government, credit unions have the funds, market reach and unique ownership model to make a tremendous contribution to the people who have been denied baking services as a result of banks having pulled out of many rural areas in the past decade. The credit union model means that the benefits flow back to the members and communities. It is hoped that the new proposals contained in the Bill will facilitate real collaboration between credit unions. Each credit union is a separate legal entity with its own board and management team. Up to now, they have not been permitted to share business. The changes in the Bill will permit credit unions to collaborate, introduce loans to each other and collectively share loans. They will be able to establish a credit union for credit unions and have greater opportunity to invest in credit union-owned services and organisations.

What some of the pillar banks wanted to do was really hurtful. They have continuously cut back on staff and they are trying to go to a model of banks that have no personnel in them. That is impersonal and unhelpful. Not everybody is highly technologically minded. For many people, if they go in and see a bank of computers in front of them, they would not know how to manage. They would be worried about pressing buttons because they are dealing with money and could take out the wrong amount or make a mistake. They would be embarrassed to be trying to do that. Some people might think that everybody should be able to do these things but I am no expert at it myself and would always rather seek the assistance of a person working in the bank.

I compliment those who work in banks. It is not their fault that there are fewer of them; it is the fault of the bank management. Bank management came to County Kerry and said it wanted to close down many of our bank branches and make them unhelpful in terms of doing anything in them. It was a crazy idea, one that I completely opposed and fought vigorously. I am glad that places like Waterville, Cahirsiveen and elsewhere in east, south and west Kerry still have their bank branches. Imagine Dingle without a bank. It was crazy. It was only the height of uproar throughout Ireland that made the banks row back on that.

The bank advertisements with the slogan "We're backing brave" are probably the most hurtful advertisements I have ever seen put up by any organisation. I would love for those signs to be taken down and burned outside the doors of the banks they are up on. I will tell the banks a thing or two about backing brave. I know many brave workers who want to access money that is on deposit in these banks. A person who goes into the bank looking for money is made to feel like a small piece of dirt. It is as though the person is doing something illegal. He or she may as well be going in looking for crack cocaine as for a loan. There would nearly be a better chance of getting the cocaine on the way into the bank than getting money out of the bank. What the banks are doing to young people is so hurtful. These young people are diligently going out and doing their day's work, saving and doing everything they can, but then they have to face the bank.

God be good to some of the people we had in banks long ago. Some of them passed on to their eternal reward, while others are still alive but now retired. They had autonomy and could judge a character. They could look at a person and decide to take a chance and give the person a loan from the bank. They were managers, but they were real managers. Now we have people who are called managers but everything has to be referred to Dublin. Someone could be as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar and as genuine as the Pope in Rome but be refused a loan from one of the main pillar banks. I call them main pillar banks but I should call them mean pillar banks because that is what they are when it comes to giving money.

I thank the credit unions. Through the years, I have taken Kerry people to the North to get their cataracts removed. I was glad to have a bus full of Kerry people going to the North last week. They returned last Friday. I was glad that some of those people were able to avail of the services of credit unions. I want to show my appreciation on the floor of the Dáil to the Kerry credit unions that provided, through a very easy method, funding for these patients who need to get cataracts removed. I humbly thank the people in those credit unions for being so kind, courteous and swift in helping those people. They know they are going to get their money back and they do not make a big song or dance about it.

High interest rates that are now creeping up on people and letters are being sent out to people who have a mortgage. It is an awful blow to a person who might be managing to pay €600 or €700 a month - it could be more or less - for the repayment to suddenly go up by €50 or €100. It could even have gone up by €200, given the number of hikes there have been. Those people are really hurting at present but we still see the signs up stating, "We're backing brave". Could we send the message out from Dáil Éireann for banks to go out and tell the truth, take down those signs, go outside the door with them and burn them because they mean nothing and it is misleading information? The day they start giving out loans, they can put up a sign boasting about it but, for the time being, they are not doing what it says on the tin.

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